Michelle Dulak Thomson
Michelle Dulak Thomson is a violinist and violist who has written about music for Strings, Stagebill, Early Music America, and The New York Times.
Articles by this Author
Critics' Picks
February 19
Bay Area chamber music aficionados flock to the Cal Performances concerts of this exceptional ensemble.
More about Cal Performances »CD REVIEW
January 30, 2012
A magnificent, fantastically controlled string quartet marches up the mountain with four Shostakovich quartets, plus a heartfelt bonus work.
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January 9, 2012
Joshua Bell with accompanist Jeremy Denk go for the poetry and beauty in Ravel, Franck, and Saint-Saëns.
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Critics' Picks
January 19 - 22
Star violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock, in flight, doesn’t alight anywhere until she’s done, and she generally dazzles you before she deigns to perch on the smallest twig.
More about Voices of Music »Season Preview
January 2, 2012
It would take something much larger than a recession to stop great chamber music ensembles from performing in the Bay Area. Below are a few of the best recitals to come in the next few months.
More "Recitals Enliven the 2012 Spring Season" »CD REVIEW
December 13, 2011
An artist who defies the stereotype: To play the violin and then the viola? James Ehnes sounds brilliant on both.
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Critics' Picks
Sun December 4, 2011 7:00pm
Anyone who’s followed this quirky (and preposterously skilled) ensemble for any time at all knows that it’s ill-inclined to sit still, and that when it does move, it’s nearly always in a startling direction.
CD REVIEW
November 22, 2011
Anonymous 4 sings marvelously varied selections from 13th- and early 14th-century treasure-troves.
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Critics' Picks
Nov. 26-27
The New EsterházyQuartet, having run out of Haydn a couple years back, is focusing now on his contemporaries and pupils. November’s set includes a Haydn quartet, a Beethoven quartet (the formidably dark Opus 95), and quartets by Anton Reicha and Nicolas Zmeskall.
CD REVIEW
October 25, 2011
Immaculate playing, with eloquence in all the right places, distinguishes violinist Charlie Siem’s latest CD.
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Critics' Picks
Sun October 30, 2011 3:00pm
Should anyone not be tired of Farinelli’s repertoire after the Philharmonia Baroque set, here is Philippe Jaroussky, among the most recent of the countertenor superstars, singing Handel and Vivaldi arias with Jeannette Sorrell’s Cleveland-based ensemble Apollo’s Fire.
Critics' Picks
Oct 21 - 23
Ensemble Caprice’s program for the San Francisco Early Music Society focuses on the Gypsies, surveying three centuries’ worth of Gypsy-influenced “classical” music.
CD REVIEW
October 11, 2011
With violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock’s brilliant ornamentation, Philharmonic Baroque Orchestra outdoes itself on its journey through Four Seasons.
More about Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra »CD REVIEW
September 16, 2011
Dance music from Rameau’s operas never bores, and always glitters. Concert des Nations plays its heart out for conductor Jordi Savall in these excerpts.
More »Feature Article
September 2, 2011
The new season includes music specialists — those who bring you the earliest music, and those who bring you the latest.
More "Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Everything Tasty" »CD REVIEW
August 23, 2011
It was well worth the wait, to hear the Pražák Quartet’s fleet take on the Borodin Second Quartet.
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July 12, 2011
A newly unearthed Vivaldi and some other bright little firebombs distinguish La Serenissima’s new disc.
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June 28, 2011
Northern Sinfonia is the first to cut a disc with Hans Gál’s First Symphony: at turns wry, yearning, jesting, or ceaselessly melodic. It’s paired with a “cute and perky” Schubert symphony.
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June 14, 2011
How to play a Haydn minuet? Listen and learn, from Philharmonia Baroque’s terrific disc.
More about Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra »CD REVIEW
June 7, 2011
Tanya Tomkins takes her sweet time on a new Bach disc, revealing a wealth of musical wisdom.
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